The incoming Spanish government is coming under intense diplomatic pressure to fall in line with EU proposals to ban wasteful fishing practices, after a leaked document showed that the previous administration was planning to derail the plans.
The government must choose between supporting its new allies in the EU, on which Spain's economic future depends, or bowing to its powerful fishing industry.
As Europe's biggest fishing industry, Spain could hold the key to the success or failure of the reforms, which would prevent fishermen discarding edible fish at sea.
But according to a secret government document seen by the Guardian, Spain's previous administration was plotting a last-ditch attempt to bring down the reforms, and allow Spanish fishermen to continue throwing away edible fish as they have been doing so for decades
The document is dated November 2, just weeks before the general election of November 20, showing that lobbying for a continuation of discards was a key policy for the outgoing socialist government even in its dying days.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef and Guardian food writer who has led the high-profile Fish Fight campaign against discards, said: "Throwing away thousands of tonnes of perfectly edible fish is completely unacceptable – and I'm sure that if the Spanish public knew about the scale of the problem in their fishing fleet, they too would demand an end to discards, and support a radical overhaul of the EU's common fisheries policy."
He said that early in 2012, the campaign, which Europe's fisheries chief Maria Damanaki has credited as an important factor in generating public support for her anti-discards policy, would be extended to the rest of Europe.
Fearnley-Whittingstall said: "We're planning to launch our Fish Fight campaign in Spain, as well as in France, Germany and Poland. We need to get the whole of Europe as outraged about this senseless waste of fish as we are here in Britain. Then perhaps the Spanish government will spend more time working towards developing a sustainable and effective solution to the discards problem, rather than trying to build alliances to derail the proposed reforms."
If the new government reverses the stance of its predecessor, it would mark a major victory in the fight to end discards, which result in European fishermen throwing away – dead – as much as two-thirds of their catches of live, edible fish.
Discards are a perverse result of the current EU fishing policy: whenever fishermen accidentally land fish for which they have no quota, or when they exceed their quota, they must throw part of the catch away. Nearly three-quarters of the EU's fish stocks are now estimated to be overexploited.
As Europe's biggest fishing nation, Spain is in pole position to obstruct or water down the reforms, which are aimed at protecting dwindling fish stocks and which the European Commission wants to finalise in 2012.
David Ritter, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace, said the current quota system was "indefensible", and the leaked Spanish policy document showed the sort of attitudes that must be overcome if radical reform of the Common Fisheries Policy was to succeed. He said: "[This is] a broken system that is destroying Europe's marine environment and the fishing industry that depends on it."
He called on David Cameron to join in the fight against discards. "Cameron needs to give his full support to Richard Benyon [UK fisheries minister] in Europe. Our national interest isn't contained by the M25 – it extends to our coastal communities, and they're under severe threat [if the Spanish government opposes an end to discards]," he said.
There is all to play for in the next few days as the incoming Spanish ministerial teams work out their detailed policy responses. While the country's dire economic state will take precedence, fishing is a major economic and social issue for Spain, home to Europe's biggest fishing fleet in terms of volume, taking up more than a quarter of the EU's total fishing capacity and employing tens of thousands of people directly, and many more indirectly.
The new ministers will be under huge pressure from the powerful Spanish fishing lobby to oppose the reforms. Although many fishermen support ending discards, because they hate the waste of throwing back edible fish to die, some want to continue the practice because it allows them to maximise their profits, by throwing away lower value fish and leaving room in their quota for higher-priced fish.
The extent of fish industry lobbying is shown by the secret document seen by the Guardian. It said that Spain wanted to retain discards as a way of allowing its fishermen to land only the most valuable fish, killing hundreds of thousands of healthy and edible fish in the process.
The document said eliminating discards was "not realistic" and instead opted for a reduction in discards "with a gradual approach" that should be varied according to each region – meaning get-out clauses for large sections of the Spanish fleet.
The document said: "The terms and deadlines [on discards] are not realistic, particularly for specific sections of the Spanish fleet. Spain requests that this discards policy be set out in terms of reduction, with a gradual approach, rigorously planned and over a period no shorter than ten years. Furthermore, this will have to be implemented regionally, taking into account the different causes for discards in different fisheries."
The European Commission wants to change fishing quotas in order to reach a scientifically set "maximum sustainable yield" for all fisheries by 2015. But the previous Spanish government wanted to move this deadline to 2020.
From the document, it is clear that the previous administration in Madrid planned to cite the country's economic woes as an argument for watering down the reforms. But the European Commission has repeatedly said that allowing the exploitation of Europe's seas to continue at the current rate would store up economic problems for the near future, as stocks would decline further and fishermen find their livelihoods in peril as a result.
Maria Damanaki, the EU fisheries commissioner, has repeatedly said that urgent action must be taken for stocks to be preserved. On formally presenting her reform proposals this summer, she said: "Action is needed now to get all our fish stocks back into a healthy state to preserve them for present and future generations. Only under this precondition can fishermen continue to fish and earn a decent living out of their activities."
She added: "It is not too late for the situation to be reversed, but we have now reached a crisis point. Overfishing must cease or there will be no more fish on the plate."
The European Commission has proposed compensation for fishermen, and ways to use the catch more efficiently, for instance by encouraging consumers to move away from the over-consumption of a few species, such as cod and haddock, to a wider range of fish that are currently undervalued. Damanaki has also proposed novel alternatives, such as trial projects for fishermen to sweep up plastic detritus from the seas instead of fishing, and to use their boats for tourism.
Comments
5 January 2012 8:40AM
When are political leaders going to start accepting that it is economic growth that is the problem, not the solution?
5 January 2012 9:09AM
Spain has repeatedly abused the system but ultimately the Common Fisheries Policy is to blame. Any policy which permits discard should be discarded.
5 January 2012 9:12AM
What an excellent idea. Catch fish that are perfectly edible. Leave them to die and then throw them back in the sea.
Jesus god almighty. How stupid can you get.
5 January 2012 9:26AM
Just another cretin aspect of the agricultural policies: no to battery hens but it's ok if 13 countries disregard it. Why does spain get a billion euro fuel subsidy so it can throw good fish back in the sea.madness
5 January 2012 9:31AM
DIscards are a disgrace and must be stopped to make fishing sustainable.
Discards are as bad as overfishing
5 January 2012 9:31AM
Of course discards should be phased out - you;d have to be a fool not to agree with that. But this is just one example of the perverse outcomes that inevitably follow from the market-fixing that is at the heart of the EU. The CAP is even worse. The EU is unreformable. We must leave.
5 January 2012 9:34AM
The most effective way to stop this madness is to boycott Spanish fish and fish products. Hit 'em where it hurts - the wallet.
5 January 2012 9:49AM
I am all for the end of discards but how the hell is it going to be monitored? its obvious that at least some less ethical boats are going to do it.... as long as the fish is dumped before port who the hell knows..
5 January 2012 10:05AM
Except that we'd probably get fined by Brussels for being un-European!
5 January 2012 10:09AM
with an attitude like this, no wonder the country is in such a shit state. being constructive clearly went out of fashion. but hey, luckily you can find refuge in a country run by a few bankers, for those few bankers. that's obviously so much better than anything those stupid continentals could ever muster.
5 January 2012 10:12AM
the UK will be forced to pay €456 trillion and prostitute its daughter. it's in the European constitution.
5 January 2012 10:17AM
The Spanish don't want to end discards because I suspect they are the only ones that don't discard in the same quantities as the rest. In effect their fish is probably traded at a discount to the rest of Europe.
If everyone else is allowed to keep the discards then Spain will suffer as their markets will not be as profitable as at present.
5 January 2012 10:30AM
Spain could really do with some serious EU monitoring when it comes to environmental issues and animal welfare...biodiversity, ecosystems, fauna erradicated by concrete in the name of tourism and economy, its first green political party emerging only last year. Just saying...
5 January 2012 10:46AM
you suspect? cool, I'll take your word for it.
5 January 2012 10:53AM
The EU remains a collection of nations squabbling to get as much out of the club as possible.
5 January 2012 11:21AM
Spain is only in the EU for what it can get out of it - along with most other backward European countries. They get huge subsidies for infrastructure and steel, etc and give nothing back other than cheating and pleading poverty. But they are not alone.
If we remain in the EU we must insist, using the threat of sanctions, that Germany and France bring to a halt all the abuse that exists from the untrustworthy countries that make up the majority of EU members.
5 January 2012 11:58AM
Start using your brain, parttimer. If Spain wasn't in the EU there would be no control whatsoever on where or how much they fished.
However badly it functions, the EU has at least some clout, to bring the policies of the different countries in line.
5 January 2012 12:22PM
"Ousted Spanish government plotted to derail EU fishing reforms" - what a disgusting headline. The former government was not a dictatorship, nor was it overthrown ("ousted") but voted out in legal elections. It did not "plot" anything it naturally clung to a posture that favoured its fishermen (you may have noticed the unemployment figures for Spain).
I hold no brief for the former Spanish government, quite the opposite, nor for the current lot, but contemptuously tarring everything Spanish with illegality, plotting behind closed doors and lack of democracy is a bit rich given the dodgy state of governance and democracy throughout the EU, including of course the UK.
5 January 2012 12:33PM
Midnighttrain to Egham - Spain does not "get" huge subsidies, it did in the past to help it recover from the economic disaster caused by a long dictatorship, but now the subsidies are going to the new joining countries.
One of the better aspects of the EU is its solidarity with citizens recovering from authoritarian regimes. So fortunately, it is no longer a "backward country", as you call it.
Badly governed, yes, Highly disadvantaged by entry into the euro before it was ready, also. But no-one with any real knowledge of modern Spain could call it backward.
5 January 2012 12:39PM
Plenty of green parties in Spain. Equo is simply the recent coalition of dozens of them on a national scale, and the IU has also always had a strong green component.
I agree they're much needed, though.
The fleet operating off Morocco/Western Sahara has sent back to port after the European Parliament failed to renew the agreement with Morocco. I'm in the Canaries and walked past my local clutch of idle fishing boats last night. Loads of calls for compensation and threats that it's the end of the industry, but overfishing has decimated the fleet in recent years anyway, and it's effectively been maintained by subsidies for decades.
5 January 2012 12:52PM
"There is all to play for in the next few days as the incoming Spanish..."
Please. Some editing is needed in this article.
5 January 2012 1:18PM
Spain are rapidly becoming my least favourite European country. Bull fighting, the same attitude to marine life as Japan and China.
Very disappointed, Spain.
5 January 2012 1:31PM
..along with most other backward European countries? jeez, what a comment. and where are you from? oh the UK? ah right, no comment
5 January 2012 1:59PM
I suggest reading the following article:
http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/eu-reform-will-give-fish-to-the-poor
5 January 2012 2:16PM
If the campaigners think that the new PP government are going to exhibit a more enlightened ecological attitude than their predecessors, I fear they've got another think coming.
No other party in Spain is more responsible for the wholesale destruction of the Spanish environment than the PP. I suspect that reducing discards is very low on their list of priorities.
5 January 2012 2:19PM
It's not just discards.
The most destructive kinds of fishing (deep sea bottom trawling, the pelagic freezer fleet etc) are loss making. They survive through EU subsidies. The European tax payer is funding the destruction of our marine ecosystems, and with them our fishing industry.
The CFP is a spectacular failure.
And I'm a europhile.
5 January 2012 4:21PM
Typical Socialist perfidy.
(Sorry. Was just too easy.)
5 January 2012 5:58PM
Probably about the same time CiF commenters figure out what economic growth actually is - i.e. never.
5 January 2012 6:01PM
Spain is a net beneficiary of the EU to the tune of some 4 billion euros per annum.
5 January 2012 8:19PM
do please tell us what YOU have figured out economic growth is.....please
5 January 2012 8:34PM
Producing more output for the same input.
Making the inputs cheaper.
Using less wage labour for the same output of goods or services.
Finding and exploiting new inputs.
Developing novel outputs.
Replacing ineffecient older models with more efficient newer models.
All the above are examples of economic growth, which is essentially doing the same or more with less, or doing it in a better way.
Economic growth is NOT (simply) using ever more of the same finite resource, expanding the use of the same technology without bothering to look for better alternatives, and so on, although these CAN produce growth, albeit not much and not necessarily for long. The perhaps stereotypical Guardianista view of growth is that process whereby we simply do more and more of what we are doing now and never change until the whole thing collapses.
To illustrate, economic growth might come from shutting down coal power stations and replacing them with nuclear power, in the process producing more energy for much less input. The Guardianista view would be that it is burning ever more coal until we run out.
Another example more pertinent to the article would be to phase out fishing and replace it with the factory production of synthetically produced fish protein - much smaller input of energy and labour for the same output. The Guardianista view would be building more and more fishing boats until the seas are stripped bare.
To get growth, you really need technical advance and free enquiry. This is most effectively achieved, like it or not, in a reasonably liberal capitalist dispensation - this is why capitalist economies consistently outperform socialistic ones, and by a wide margin.
Another misconception about growth common hereabouts is "infinite growth is impossible on a finite world". This is true, but only trivially so - the actual limits are WAY further out than most think. Growth does not consist in simply doing the same things the same way but more of them.
5 January 2012 11:24PM
Another politician that likes to be used by the greedy and then abuse the rest with his position.
5 January 2012 11:47PM
Spains new PP giving US and Canadian oil and gas companies licence to drill in the Alboran Sea (mouth of the Mediteranean-between African and Eurasian tectonic plates near Granada and Almeria)? Pristine fishing & seafood waters, dolphin and whale route and a thriving tourist economy area and the EU = silence..? Like drilling in a very large lake on which 2 continents are dependant should an accident happen...Hello?
http://www.surinenglish.com/20111222/news/costasol-malaga/costa-exploration-hands-government-201112221542.html
So once their sea-front land (and corresponding biodiversity) is under concrete, they sell the seabed.
What was that about UN and 2012 being the Renewable Energy Year again?
6 January 2012 12:09AM
Yes, but they (EQUO) are failing to appeal to the different layers of the spanish society aligning themselfes with sometimes petty causes when so much more is at stake, thus losing credibility and their first public promise was to tax the rich which, with directly or indirectly concerned voters was a balloon that never flew. Their campaign and presentation didnt hit the target, allthough it is out there growing as I write. Still, I have faith Uralde is qualified for the job and think they should be part of the parliament, perhaps aligning with IU. The BIG danger with PP is that they only think and act with shortterm (4 years...) benefits in mind...and they´re in a hurry.....
6 January 2012 9:14AM
Thanks for very informative reply. I shall try and reply a bit later - I have a busy day today.
Thanks again.
6 January 2012 11:35AM
You make a good case for the possibility of sustainable growth, but you're talking about what growth should be, not what it is. What it actually is is what you define as the 'guardianista' view.
6 January 2012 11:51AM
Except, of course, that Spain was doing fine until the financial crisis hit, in fact running a budget surplus intermittently.
As long as you enrich yourself by hosting banks that freely loot the coffers of other nations, may I suggest that no one is going to give a damn as to who you consider untrustworthy? Right at the moment, the UK is not far off from countries such as Switzerland with their aiding and abetting tax evasion in other countries. The UK merely chooses a more "clean hands" route.
6 January 2012 11:55AM
Which qualifies it as backwards just how? Spain has a high speed rail network - we're still waiting for that in the UK. And Spain is paying for 14% of the UK rebate. Maybe you want to pick up that tab yourself for a change?
6 January 2012 12:51PM
So basicly the EU was to implement a practice that would make fishing less profitable, and the country with the biggest fishing fleet wants that to be done gradually. How evil.
Shouldn't the Guardian have contacted the Spanish government to have their say in this article, as opposed to Greenpeace and the bloke that leads the campaign for it, who happens to work for you? You know, like journalists are supposed to do, to get both sides of the story.
I've got the feeling what you would get if you bothered would run in line of this "secret" document:
"The terms and deadlines [on discards] are not realistic, particularly for specific sections of the Spanish fleet. Spain requests that this discards policy be set out in terms of reduction, with a gradual approach, rigorously planned and over a period no shorter than ten years. Furthermore, this will have to be implemented regionally, taking into account the different causes for discards in different fisheries."
How is this document "secret" anyway? Fishing policy is a secret now? I don't think so.
Also compare the tone of the article to those dealing with the EU trying to impose a tax on financial transactions and its effect on British economy. There it's the EU doing the secret dirty plotting to annoy virtuous Britain.
6 January 2012 2:35PM
It was a socialist government...nuff said.
6 January 2012 4:28PM
Go on Hugh - Get over there and sort them out (and give us a break from having to listen to you at the same time)
7 January 2012 10:00AM
Gubulgaria makes one of the points I wished to make very well, and indeed in my original comment I should perhaps have asked "when are political leaders going to accept that growth in the economy (i.e. in the economy as they understand it) is the problem, not the solution.
In your reply, you too seem to think that the ecomony is about the production of things which are then consumed (or which provide some percieved utility) and/or the activity which serves people's wants and for which the service provider gets a monetary reward which they can spend on some more goods and services. In other words you are looking at the economy as measured in money which ultimately is used to despoil the planet somewhere down the line.
Thus prostitution is a perfectly valid economic activity by this model whereas consensual free-of-charge sex is not. Even burglury can be made to fit the monetary model of the economy.
Where does communal singing, conversation, smiling (and so on) come into it as far as you are concerned?
I would define "the economy" as being the sum of all the activities which humans do and which affect other humans.
What "value" you ascribe to each activity will be a matter of debate. Random murder is usually regarded as of negative value whereas killing a person about to plant a bomb is widely held to be positive.
Saying something that is true is positive. Lying is negative. And so on.
The economy, by this definition is deeply intertwined with ethics since whether or not humans are, as a sum of their activity, adding a positive value to the universe or are making things worse is what drives the human project. We want, it seems to me, to leave the world a better place than when we found it.
I take the view that on balance humans are good but they are distrracted into wierd activity such as shopping for stuff they don't need whilst forgetting to talk with (or sing with) their neighbours.
Making value judgements about what we are doing is a necessary step before we set about even thinking as to whether it should "grow" or not.